“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” -John F. Kennedy
Expressing gratitude is important. Two reasons: 1) good karma, and 2) you document your positive influences, which pushes you to keep growing and improving.
Unless you plan on living in a cave like Tom Hanks in Castaway, you’re part of the world, not a separate being. As a member of Earth, you inevitably get influenced by the positive people around you.
Being Grateful Benefits You
When you express gratitude for those positive influences, you’re writing a journal in a way. You write down the benefit you’ve gotten from a person.
An improved work ethic, a positive characteristic that you’re working on, a negative characteristic you’re shedding, seeing the world with an improved perspective… whatever personal development you’ve had from that influence, you’re concretely recording it.
When you express that gratitude, you see how you’ve grown. The specific thing that has helped you improve. That gives you a clear picture of what you need to do to keep growing. Plus: seeing your progress laid out in a journal or article motivates you to keep going.
And even on a directly beneficial level, expressing gratitude is good karma. Do good things, and good things will happen to you.
(Just don’t express gratitude expecting good things directly, since that’s not genuine gratitude and is tainted karma… wow, that’s a good song title, “Tainted Karma.”)
Some People I’m Grateful For
Since starting Lifebeat in October 2009, there are a handful of people who have positively influenced me and my site. In no particular order, here is who I’m grateful for as of January 2010…
Chris Guillebeau for inspiring me to be confident in my unconventional self and for being a remarkable website and small business for me to model after. Also, for sharing your process in the free 279 Days to Overnight Success guide that I followed to start growing Lifebeat.
Jonathan Mead for giving me clarity and direction by pushing me to analyze what I love to do and can get paid for with the amazing free ebook Zero Hour Workweek. And letting me guest write for your readers about breaking free of the sidewalks in life.
Nathan Hangen for pushing me to be more entrepreneurial (or rather, webrepreneurial) with Lifebeat. And letting me guest write for your readers about 3 steps to being remarkable. Get the 1st 2 years of Nathan’s remarkable writing on entrepreneurship, motivation, and life in his generous free ebook Claiming Your Destiny.
Tomas Stonkus for helping me find my unique voice and pointing out my writing strengths to focus on. I highly recommend taking advantage of Tom’s consulting service before everyone realizes his genius and he has to shut it down because of too many requests.
Henri Junttila for pushing my slow ass to write faster and opening my mind to being a paid freelance writer (and how it’s just ‘guest posting deluxe’). Henri’s awesomely following his passion and his free series Discover Your Passion in 5 Days can help you start doing the same.
Ramit Sethi for personally emailing me a helpful tip on my consulting service. And for forcing me to get into prospective clients’ heads: offer solutions specifically to people willing to pay, not just focus on features. Ramit’s article on how to turn your skills into services that people will pay for is one of the most useful freelancing/consulting free resources I’ve ever read.
Josh Hanagarne for letting me guest write on how to expertly balance work and life, Glen Stansberry for letting me guest write on Radiohead’s formula for unleashing your creative genius, and Mary Jaksch for letting me guest write on the U2 method of high-impact writing. And just all 3 of you (plus Jonathan and Nathan) in general for letting me share my ideas in guest posts on your awesome sites – showing me that I’m not crazy and maybe someone else might want to read what I have to say.
Note: In part two of this article here, I explore how to effectively express gratitude and thank the awesome commentators on this site.
The Importance of Being Grateful
Expressing gratitude brings good karma and documents your positive influences, showing you what you need to keep working on to grow and improve.
What positive influences have you had lately? Who are you grateful for?
